This page lists all official IT service alerts shared with the KAUST community. Alerts are also delivered directly to your KAUST email.
Standard Weekly Maintenance Window
Thursday at 5:00 PM to Saturday at 8:00 PM. During this window, some services may experience temporary slowdowns, intermittent issues, or brief outages while essential maintenance is performed.
Some KAUST systems hosted on the KAUST Portal (portal.kaust.edu.sa) are maintained directly by our cloud vendor. These activities are scheduled quarterly and are independent of KAUST IT's regular maintenance windows. They may temporarily affect the availability or performance of several online services.
View Planned Vendor Maintenance
The most recent IT service alerts are shown below. For the full history, see the archive further down this page.
30 September, 2026
Scheduled Maintenance: KAUST Sign-In Services, IT Website, and Network SwitchesPlanned IT maintenance includes a 30-minute KAUST sign-in maintenance window, IT Website maintenance, and ongoing network switch upgrades. Review the schedule and any action you may need to take.
27 September, 2026
IT Maintenance Notice: IT Website MaintenanceThe KAUST IT Website will undergo maintenance on Tuesday, 6 October, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. No downtime is expected, but the website may be slower than usual during this time.
The Change Advisory Board (CAB) is a cross-functional group within KAUST IT that reviews and approves proposed IT changes to maintain service reliability and reduce risk. The CAB Chair is appointed by the Chief Information Officer (CIO).
For urgent or high-impact situations, the Emergency Change Advisory Board (ECAB) may be activated to ensure timely decisions while protecting service stability.
All IT changes are reviewed under the Change Management process. When communication is needed, an IT Alert is published and shared with the KAUST community. This includes:
All past IT service alerts are listed below, including scheduled maintenance notices, unplanned outages, and service restoration updates.
17 June, 2026
Update: Email Protection Enhancement postponed and amended
The Email Protection Enhancement has been postponed and now applies to Microsoft Outlook only. Google Gmail is not impacted or affected by this change. The activity has been rescheduled to Sunday, 28 June 2026, with activation starting at 5:00 PM. All other activities below remain as scheduled. See the highlighted changes in the Email Protection Enhancement row below.
KAUST Community,
The following maintenance activities are planned to keep KAUST IT’s services reliable, secure, and performing well. Please review the schedule and expected impacts below.
| Activity | Details | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Application License Server Patching | When Thursday, 18 June 2026, 8:00 PM – Friday, 19 June 2026, 6:00 AM Impact Applications that depend on the Application License Server will not be available during this window. Action Required Save your work and close any affected licensed applications before 5:00 PM. Do not open or launch these applications during the maintenance window. Affected Applications
If you are planning time-sensitive work, save your progress early and avoid launching licensed tools during this window. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Enterprise Windows Server Security Update | When Thursday, 18 June 2026, 8:00 PM – Friday, 19 June 2026, 6:00 AM Impact Some services that run on Windows Servers may be briefly interrupted while we install security updates. Action Required Save your work. Where possible, avoid using services that run on these servers during this window. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| KAUST Portal Services (SAP Maintenance) | When Sunday, 21 June 2026 Impact SAP services may be unavailable during this window. Action Required For more about the affected services, please refer to the related maintenance notice. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wireless Certificate Update | When Sunday, 21 June 2026 – Thursday, 25 June 2026 Impact A new wireless security certificate is being rolled out across campus. There is no service interruption. Once the update reaches your device, you will be prompted to accept the new certificate the next time you connect to the UniFi or iCampus networks on campus. This applies to all devices, including laptops, desktops, phones, and tablets. Action Required When prompted on campus, review and accept the certificate to continue connecting to UniFi or iCampus. You may be prompted on more than one device. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Email Protection Enhancement (Outlook and Gmail) | AMENDED — SEE CHANGES BELOW When Thursday, 25 June 2026, 5:00 PM – 5:30 PM Updated: Sunday, 28 June 2026, activation starting at 5:00 PM Impact KAUST IT is improving email security in both Microsoft Outlook and Google Gmail. There is no downtime and no impact to your daily work or studies. You may start to see new security popups and quarantine notifications. These are designed to protect you from harmful email. Updated: This enhancement now applies to Microsoft Outlook only. Google Gmail is not impacted or affected by this change. Action Required No action is needed during the change window. To learn what the new popups and quarantine notifications look like, see the Email Security guide, which includes screenshots and examples. For general information about KAUST email services, visit the Email and Calendar Tools service page. |
Need help?
Contact the IT Service Desk at 910 or 012-808-0910, or visit the walk-in support desk during business hours.
You can also log a ticket using our virtual assistant, VITA, at vita.kaust.edu.sa.
We appreciate your understanding as we continue improving KAUST IT’s services.
KAUST IT
it.kaust.edu.sa
